News

Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) members at the University of Washington (UW), in collaboration with NeuroRecovery Technologies, are developing a novel, non-invasive therapeutic approach for people with spinal cord injury, which has been shown to promote long-term recovery of hand and arm function.

This research study, led by CNT Co-Director, Chet Moritz, and CNT student members at the UW, Fatma Inanici and Soshi Samejima, was recently featured on KING 5 News. The televised news segment focused on the experience of one of the study’s participants, Joe Beatty. The innovative treatment has improved function in Beatty's legs, as well as his hands and arms, and in the piece, Beatty describes some of the functional improvements he has experienced.

“You saw me walk out here, six months ago there was no way I could do it, “ Beatty said to KING 5 News. “So, now I’m on the treadmill walking, on the cardiac walker, I’ll do eight minutes straight. I couldn’t do that months ago.”

The exact mechanism that is re-activating nerves in the spinal cord and making them receptive to descending signals from the brain is currently not fully understood, but the therapeutic impact is unmistakeable.

“The current theory is that we are stimulating the spinal cord electrically, using a fancy waveform that allows the energy to pass through the skin painlessly and activate the spinal circuits. And then that activation of the spinal circuits in combination with Joe’s attempts to move generated by his brain activity is what results in his initial ability to move when he might otherwise not be able to,” Moritz explained to KING 5. “Now, what leads to long-term improvements, we’re much less sure about. But there is evidence of what we call neuroplasticity or changes in the connections between neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. And we believe that by practicing activities with the stimulator running, Joe is able to actually change the wiring between his brain and his spinal cord, and that is what leads to long-term improvements.”

Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) Co-Director, Chet Moritz, was recently quoted in The New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, Forbes and Nature in regard to research studies focused on an experimental, pacemaker-like device that offers new hope for better treating spinal cord injuries.

The paper presented Bergsman’s research study of an engineering design notebook that she and CSNE University Education Manager, Lise Johnson, co-created and how the notebook was used by students in Johnson’s 2017 Neural Engineering Tech Studio class at the University of Washington.

“Lise and I collaborated on a re-design of her popular studio design course. One of the things that came out of our conversation, based on Lise’s experiences with previous iterations of her course, was a need for a tool to help engineering students learn to engage in engineering design, project management and design thinking and to support them in developing skills in documentation,” Bergsman said. “It is common practice for engineering students to be told to document their design processes in a blank notebook, but we felt that we could create a structured notebook—one with prompts, tasks, and design thinking tools—that would better support students’ design learning.”

The award came with a cash prize of $500. Johnson and Bergsman plan to publish the design notebook to make it widely available to engineering faculty and students. Bergsman also plans to submit the manuscript for publication in an engineering education research journal. The design notebook will be used for a third time when the class is next offered by the CSNE in Winter Quarter 2019.

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) members, Scott Bellman, Sheryl Burgstahler, and Eric Chudler, are describing in detail the CSNE’s successful practices for encouraging participation of individuals with disabilities. Their paper, published April 16 in American Behavioral Scientist, presents methods, tools and materials that can be used by others to increase the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in postsecondary science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs.

The methods described in the paper include recruitment and engagement tactics, raising visibility of people with disabilities, ensuring accessibility, creating a culture of inclusion, and strategies for data collection and evaluation. These methods were designed to ensure that the CSNE is welcoming and accessible to a wide range of people and to recruit individuals with disabilities into significant roles that support the center’s mission. According to the paper, these efforts resulted in the engagement of individuals with disabilities in the CSNE’s operations, activities and research at a higher rate compared to other Engineering Research Centers nationwide.

The cover story leads into a lengthy article, titled “Thought Experiments,” which gives a comprehensive overview of the current state of BCI research and aims to separate what will be realistically possible in the near future from much of the hype that surrounds this cutting-edge field.

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) members, Raj Rao, Jenny Cronin and James Wu, are featured in an article within the January 2018 issue of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine that explains how their research will enable an individual to precisely control movements while opening and closing a prosthetic hand.

“We are developing a bi-directional brain-computer interface (BBCI) that not only records and interprets electrical signals from the brain but also provides information back to the brain through [electrical] stimulation,” Cronin stated in the IEEE article. She also noted the importance of using the BBCI in tandem with technologically-advanced prosthetic limbs for greatest success. “The hand-arm prosthetic needs to have its own control mechanisms for executing basic finger movements and grasps, as well as tactile sensors and encoders for recording finger joint positions.”

In addition to furthering BBCI development, Rao, Cronin and Wu’s research is contributing to foundational knowledge needed to engineer neuroplasticity in the brain and spinal cord, helping these organs better adapt after a stroke or injury. Engineering neuroplasticity is a new form of rehabilitation that uses engineered devices to restore lost or injured connections in the brain, spinal cord and other areas of the nervous system, and it is fundamental to the CSNE’s mission and vision.

The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) was featured in the December 2017 issue of the University of Washington’s (UW’s) alumni magazine, Columns, in a two-page article. In addition to its website, Columns magazine has a print circulation of about 220,000 UW alumni and university affiliates. The article highlighted work by CSNE members at the UW to better treat essential tremor by developing a closed-loop brain-computer interface system.

“The project is paving the way for new cutting-edge neurotechnologies being developed at the center that will improve the quality of life of individuals with stroke, spinal cord injury and other neurological conditions,” said Raj Rao, co-director of the CSNE.

Timing is important for many everyday activities, so better understanding how the brain processes and tracks time helps researchers intent on engineering brain-computer interfaces that can improve the body’s sensorimotor function.

Prior models for how the brain achieves precise control over timing were focused on the idea that there might be a centralized clock, or pacemaker somewhere in the brain that keeps time for the entire brain. However, this new study shows that there is evidence for an alternative timekeeping system that relies on the neurons responsible for producing a specific action. Depending on the time interval required, these neurons compress or stretch out the steps they take to generate the behavior at a specific time.

“What we found is that it’s a very active process. The brain is not passively waiting for a clock to reach a particular point,” said Jazayeri in MIT News.

Next steps for Jazayeri include exploring further how the brain generates the neural patterns seen during varying time intervals and also how our expectations influence our ability to produce different intervals.

CSNE member, Dr. Jeffrey Ojemann, was quoted in a recent Forbes article about his work with the Allen Institute for Brain Scienceto map the human brain. Ojemann, a vice chairman and professor of neurological surgery at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and a director of the UW’s GRID lab, was one of the physicians who collaborated with the Allen Institute to collect tissue samples from patients undergoing treatment for epilepsy or brain tumors. The new data from these samples includes information about the shapes and electrical properties of 300 living neurons, which is a boost to medical research and physicians who treat people with neurological diseases.

“The impact on humanity could be extremely broad,” said Ojemann in his interview with Forbes. “I very much hope that this helps us treat epilepsy,” he said, “but it could just as well help us with our understanding of aging, or Alzheimer’s or autism.”

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) University Education Manager, Lise Johnson, was recently featured in Science Magazine. The article, “Five reasons to leave your science bubble,” encourages researchers to discover the unconventional career paths that science could guide them on, such as choreographing dances to demonstrate research findings, collaborating with playwrights or even launching a new scientific field.

For Johnson, she sees her options as broad, saying “I’m still considering a research career, but working in education, industry, or science communication is also a possibility, so I do these types of projects to get experience,”.

Working under Josh Smith, University of Washington (UW) professor and co-leader of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering’s (CSNE’s) Communications and Interfaceresearch thrust, Talla and his peers discovered how to manipulate low-power sensors and devices to draw energy from televisions and wi-fi radio frequencies, known as Ambient RF signals.

Rather than relying on a battery or circuit board, Talla states in his thesis that this process, known as backscatter communication, “…enables ubiquitous communication where devices can communicate among themselves at unprecedented scales and in locations that were previously inaccessible.”

Recently, the team was able to successfully complete a phone call using ambient backscatter exclusively; a milestone for the future of battery-free devices.

In addition to conducting groundbreaking research, Talla also serves as Chief Technology Officer at Jeeva, a CSNE industry affiliate and wireless company that he co-founded with Smith. One of Jeeva’s primary goals is to allow easier communication between devices, doing so by providing wireless connectivity that uses 10,000 times less power than current wireless systems.

Visvesh Sathe, a UW EE assistant professor and CSNE member, and his research team, which includes the CSNE’s Chris Ruddell and Steve Perlmutter, have discovered a way to improve BCI recording system performance by a factor of 10. The team’s work addresses challenges, such as the need for a large number of neural recording and stimulation electrodes, containing those electrodes within a relatively small space, and reducing signal noise.

This advancement, along with the new system’s ability to suppress signal noise and use high precision recording to read brain signals are steps toward an ambitious goal, creating a bi-directional BCI (known as a BBCI) on a single chip, where signals flow both to and from the neural device.

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) research leader, Eberhard Fetz, has co-authored a report published today in the journal Science, which takes a close look at the ethical concerns and implications surrounding devices controlled via brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). The report describes several likely scenarios resulting from the use of these devices and suggests some possible ways to address the issues, including designing a form of “veto” control for the BMI user, engineering greater neurosecurity into BMIs, and improving health and neuro-literacy in the public sphere.

Similar discussions, investigations and research into the ethical impacts and implications of brain-computer interfaces is conducted on an ongoing basis by the CSNE’s Neuroethics research thrust, which studies ethical issues arising from emerging neural engineering technologies. Issues include questions of privacy, security, moral and legal responsibility, changes in our understanding of individual agency, shifts in personal identity and social justice.

On June 16, 2017, through support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) members Katherine Pratt and Tim Brown, participated in "Future Con," a three-day event that brought cutting-edge science to a wide audience as part of Awesome Con, a popular science fiction convention in Washington D.C. with over 60,000 attendees.

Pratt, a CSNE member and Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), and Brown, a CSNE member, neuroethicist and Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the UW, were part of a Future Con panel titled, "The Human-Technology Frontier: To Enhancement and Beyond?" Among several topics, they discussed with the panel and audience the possibility that neurotechnology could change how we think about humanity itself and alter our current understanding of what we consider to be disabilities and human neural enhancement.

"The panel had some great questions and allowed both Tim and I to talk about multidisciplinary work and neuroethics research through the Center [the CSNE]," Pratt said.

Pratt also participated in a StarTalk Live! Broadcast, "Engineering the Future: What Humanity Can, Should, and Will need to Do." Pratt was one of two NSF scientists on the show, speaking about the future of science and technology as it relates to the future of space travel.

Both Pratt and Brown were available during the event to answer questions from the public at the NSF's "Ask A Scientist" exhibitor booth.

"I spoke with two women with fibromyalgia who were interested in the neuroscience of sensation, a program coordinator at MENSA who wanted to think more about what it means to be 'normal functioning,' and an undergraduate interested in the CSNE's [Research Experience for Undergraduates] REU program," Brown said. "It was an awesome experience."

“I am truly honored to be named the inaugural CJ and Elizabeth Hwang professor of CSE and EE,” Rao said. “I regard the professorship as a recognition of the great collaborative effort of the students, faculty and staff at our center [CSNE] over the past six years that has made UW a premier destination for neural engineering in the world. We are extremely grateful to the Hwang family for their generosity in accelerating the Center’s efforts to build devices that will improve the quality of life of people with spinal cord injury and other neurological conditions.”

“The selection of Professor Rao is ideal,” Mr. Hwang said. “His work lays the groundwork for research on developing a device-based rehabilitation technology to improve the quality of life of people with spinal cord injury and brain damage. He is well qualified for the Hwang Professorship. Chair Poovendran [UWEE Chair] certainly made a brilliant choice. We are very pleased to have him installed as the first endowed professor.”

The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering’s (CSNE’s) Executive and Education Director, Eric Chudler, won an Emmy on June 3 at the 2017 Northwest Regional Emmy Awards for an episode he executive produced for the UWTV series, BrainWorks. The Emmy-winning episode, “Exercise and the Brain,” discussed the benefits of exercise on the brain and learning. BrainWorks is an educational series that takes viewers on a journey inside the human brain, with the goal of educating children about the wonders of neuroscience.

“The BrainWorks series encourages people to learn about their brain and neurological disorders,” Chudler said. “The programs have an educational mission similar to that of the CSNE, to motivate young people to pursue careers in neuroscience.”

The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) and its industry affiliate, ARM, have recently signed an agreement whereby the CSNE will work with ARM to develop a unique, brain-implantable, system-on-a-chip (SoC) for bi-directional brain-computer interfaces (BBCIs) aimed at solving neurodegenerative disorders. The collaboration is generating interest in the media, including articles in BBC News, Fox News and Business Weekly.

“An important thing is that we would like to get out ahead of these problems [neural privacy and security issues] before they happen. With e-mail spam, we didn’t get out ahead of it before it happened. We started this work about four years ago, and our hope was to try and capture the issue, bring it to awareness, and begin to look for solutions before these things happen,” said Howard Chizeck, CSNE member and professor of electrical engineering at the UW, in the CBC Radio interview.

A new article in The Conversation by Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering Director, Raj Rao, and University of Washington Bioengineering doctoral student, James Wu, describes the state-of-the-art of neural engineering. Topics covered include the origins of brain-computer interface (BCI) research, different types of BCIs, and what’s realistically possible for assistive and augmentative BCIs. The article has been picked-up and republished multiple times, in outlets such as CNN, Scientific American, Smithsonian.com, LiveScience, Raw Story and Futurism.

Implantable fibers are already being used by scientists to stimulate specific targets in the brain and to monitor electrical responses by neurons; however, similar studies in the nerves of the spinal cord, which might ultimately lead to treatments to alleviate spinal cord injuries, have been more difficult to carry out. This is because the spine flexes and stretches as the body moves, and the relatively stiff, brittle fibers used today could damage the delicate spinal cord tissue.

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Washington (UW) are part of a multi-institution team that has developed a new, flexible, rubber-like fiber, which can be used to study spinal cord neurons and potentially restore bodily function.

In a recent paper published in the journal Science Advances, the research team describes the implant they have developed. This rubber-like fiber can flex and stretch while simultaneously delivering both optical (light) impulses, for optoelectronic stimulation, and electrical connections, for stimulation and monitoring of neurons.

“I wanted to create a multimodal interface with mechanical properties compatible with tissues for neural stimulation and recording,” says CSNE student member at MIT, Chi (Alice) Lu. “The spinal cord is not only bending but also stretching during movement.”

According to Polina Anikeeva, CSNE deputy faculty director and professor at MIT, the spinal cord undergoes stretches of approximately 12 percent during normal, everyday movement, so flexibility is a must. These new fibers are not only stretchable but also very flexible.

“They’re so floppy, you could use them to do sutures, and do light delivery at the same time,” Anikeeva said. “There are many different types of cells in the spinal cord, and we don’t know how the different types respond to recovery, or lack of recovery, after an injury.” These new fibers, the researchers hope, could help to fill in some of those blanks.

On Thursday, March 16, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) Executive and Education Director, Eric Chudler, and CSNE University Education Manager, Lise Johnson, appeared on KING 5 Television’s daily talk show, “New Day Northwest.” Chudler and Johnson were discussing their new book, “Brain Bytes: Quick Answers to Quirky Questions about the Brain.”

Chudler’s and Johnson’s book contains answers to more than 100 common questions about the brain, such as: Does brain size matter? Why do we dream? What can I do to keep my brain healthy?

Answers in the book are derived from the latest information about neuroscience and neural engineering. A section of the book is dedicated to discussions about brain-computer interfaces and brain stimulation as well.

The CSNE research team at San Diego State University, led by Sam Kassegne, has been developing a special kind of electrode to be used in brain-computer interfaces, and their work has been getting noticed in the media.

This “glassy carbon” electrode both electrically stimulates (sends information) and records (receives information) from neurons in the brain, providing an efficient and biocompatible connection between the body and an implanted device.

“With the technology now demonstrated to have key advantages over existing commercial and research-grade thin-film technologies (coupled electrical and electrochemical detection, higher signal to noise ratio, very low corrosion rate), the next logical step is human trials,” Kassegne said. “We are currently working closely together with our collaborators to go to the next level.”

The fibers are designed to mimic the softness and flexibility of brain tissue, which could make it possible to leave implants in place over a longer period of time. With some adjustments to further improve biocompatibility, this new approach to implantable brain-computer interfaces could provide a dramatically improved way to learn about the functions and interconnections of different brain regions. Read the full article in MIT News.

Brown and Thompson are working together in the UW BioRobotics Lab on projects related to deep brain stimulators and brain-computer interfaces. Brown is a doctoral student in Philosophy and research assistant at the UW, and Thompson is a doctoral student in the UW BioRobotics Lab in Electrical Engineering at the UW. Thompson is also president of the CSNE Student Leadership Council.

“When Neuroethicists Become Labmates” features a discussion between Brown and Thompson, covering how they have collaborated successfully to enhance and strengthen each other’s work in their respective fields of study. Thompson studies electrical engineering, and Brown studies philosophy, in particular, neuroethics. Read the full article on the AJOB Neuroscience blog.

The third annual Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) Hackathon was recently covered by Q13 Fox News. Hackathon organizer and University of Washington (UW) Bioengineering PhD student, Nile Wilson, is featured in the video report. Watch the Q13 Fox News video.

The CSNE Hackathon is a university student-run competition that gives participants an opportunity to engineer innovative neural technology with potential for real-world clinical and commercial applications. Participating students came from the UW, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, San Diego State University and other CSNE-affiliated partner institutions and programs across the country.

Pictured below is this year’s winning Hackathon project team, DropStop (with their 3-D printed brain trophies). DropStop created an interactive rehabilitation system for patients with foot drop, a common side effect of stroke, spinal cord injury and certain hip surgeries. The device the team designed collects electromyogram (EMG) signals from leg and foot muscles and translates them into biofeedback in the form of light emitting diode (LED) output. This line of blinking lights on a circuit board serves as guidance the patient can use while exerting effort in their physical therapy. While engaged in leg and foot exercises, the user can observe through the LED output that muscles in their dropped foot are indeed activating, even if they can’t visibly see those muscles move.

A recent study by a team of University of Washington (UW) researchers, including the CSNE’s Director, Dr. Rajesh Rao, has been in the news lately for its unique findings. The team’s research uses transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the human visual cortex to convey binary information about obstacles in a virtual maze. The information is communicated non-invasively and directly to the brain through TMS without other visual or auditory cues. Research subjects navigate the maze through brain stimulation alone, effectively achieving a sort of ‘sixth sense’ for the brain.

ABM is an industry leader in discovering neuroscience applications that measure and interpret brain function and detect abnormal neuro-cardio respiratory response during sleep. The company also develops innovative devices that improve sleep quality and enhance performance.

The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering’s (CSNE’s) Computational Neuroscience research thrust co-leader, Emily Fox, has been selected to receive a 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government upon scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Fox is among 102 scientists and engineers (only 19 via the National Science Foundation) who are being recognized by the White House for advancing the frontiers of science and technology and serving the community through scientific leadership, public education and community outreach.

CSNE members at the University of Washington, Jeneva Cronin, Dr. Jared Olson, and Dr. Jeff Ojemann, are part of the research team featured in this Pacific Standard article. The piece explains their recent study, which shows that a sense of ownership of an artificial limb can be induced by electrical brain stimulation.

The study is notable because this is the first time in humans researchers have been able to use brain surface stimulation to provide ‘touch’ feedback to direct movement, which is a potential method for providing sensory feedback in future prosthetic and rehabilitative applications.

Both the article and the video tell the story of Jayna Bean Doll, a young girl who was diagnosed with hemimegalencephaly, a rare condition in which one half of the brain develops abnormally larger than the other. The condition causes seizures, and in Jayna's case, required that half her brain be removed. CSNE member, Dr. Jeff Ojemann, performed the surgery, which stopped the seizures but left Jayna with weakness and impaired motor control on the left side of her body. CSNE member and UW professor, Dr. Kat Steele, and UW Mechanical Engineering students in her lab created an orthosis to help Jayna regain movement and motor control of her left arm. The video and article profiles the process of creating this orthosis, as well as some of the research advances the CSNE is making in neural engineering, which promise to help the body heal, feel and move again. Read the full story and watch the video here.

Together, is the most expansive philanthropic campaign in the UW’s history, and it is aimed at transforming the lives of students and all the people the university serves. For more information, visit the UW’s campaign website, which will be updated frequently as the campaign progresses.

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) student, Kaitlyn McGlothlen, has won both the International Neuroethics Society essay contest and the Voices in Bioethics essay contest with a paper she wrote for Dr. Laura Specker-Sullivan’s 2016 Spring Quarter class at the CSNE, Ethical Issues in Neural Engineering. McGlothlen’s paper is titled, “Oops, There Goes my Childhood: Identity and Clinical Ethical Issues in the Selective Erasing of Memories.”

Dr. Bing Brunton, assistant professor of biology at the University of Washington (UW) and Dr. Raj Rao, Director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and professor in the UW Computer Science & Engineering department, have received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how the brain functions without being given structured tasks or direction. Their study is aimed at understanding neural processing outside of traditionally structured and controlled experiments in a laboratory setting.

In Brunton’s and Rao’s study, subjects receive no explicit instructions, but instead, simply behave as they wish in their hospital-room, including eating, sleeping and conversing with family. By observing non-structured behavior, the study aims to build a better understanding of the brain in action, in a real-world scenario. Learn more about this grant and study on the NSF website.

CSNE research leader and University of Washington (UW) professor, Dr. Josh Smith is principal investigator of the UW Sensor Systems Lab, which has developed a way for embedded devices to harvest Bluetooth radio signals and use them to broadcast Wi-Fi transmissions. With further optimization, the team could use this technique to make a new generation of apps that process data from devices implanted in the body. Read the full article in the MIT Technology Review.

A Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE)-funded research study exploring ethical implications of brain-computer interfaces used in conjunction with closed-loop brain stimulation has been published in Taylor & Francis’ Brain-Computer Interfaces journal.

Individuals at MGH were interviewed for their perspectives about closed-loop or next-generation DBS devices, given their experience with open-loop DBS. The study uncovered four major themes characterizing test subjects’ attitudes toward next-generation DBS: control over device function, authentic self, relationship effects and meaningful consent. The article presents subject feedback within the framework of these themes and asserts that these attitudes about closed-loop DBS can help inform future development of psychiatric DBS research.

An international team led by researchers at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) based at the University of Washington (UW) is one of three finalists in a race to produce an implantable wireless device that can assess, stimulate and block the activity of nerves that control organs.

For the GlaxoSmithKline Bioelectronics Innovation Challenge, the team is working on an implantable device that could help restore bladder function for people with spinal cord injuries or millions of others who suffer from incontinence.

“For people with spinal cord injuries, restoring sexual function and bladder function are some of their top priorities — higher than regaining the ability to walk,” said Chet Moritz, deputy director of the CSNE and UW associate professor of rehabilitation medicine and of physiology and biophysics.

“The vision is for these neural devices to be as ubiquitous as pacemakers or deep brain stimulators, where a surgeon implants the device and it’s seamless for the patient,” he said. “We’re really excited to make a difference in people’s lives and to help push these technologies forward.”

The CSNE team — one of 11 initially selected by GlaxoSmithKline to compete in the challenge — joined forces with another team of experts from the University of Cambridge and University College London for the second round of the competition. The company will award up to $1 million in additional research funding to each team.

Larry Bencivengo, an educator who participated in the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) 2015 Summer Research Experience for Teachers (RET), was recently featured in this video by the Mercer Island School District. Mr. Bencivengo developed an artificial neural network curriculum, with guidance from the CSNE, for his AP Biology class. The curriculum unit was co-authored by Mr. Bencivengo and Benjamin Hart, a biology teacher at Redmond High School. Mr. Bencivengo has also recently been awarded a grant in the Partners in Science program of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. During the next two summers, Mr. Bencivengo will be conducting basic research in science labs at the University of Washington. Kristen Bergsman, the CSNE Pre-College Education Manager, is also featured in the video. Ms. Bergsman gives an overview of the CSNE and how Mr. Bencivengo participated in the RET program.

Every year, the CSNE at the University of Washington sponsors this seven-week summer research program for middle school and high school teachers on the university's Seattle campus. Teachers selected for the program participate in ongoing research projects with researchers and have the opportunity to develop new lesson plans based on their research experiences. Learn more at the CSNE Research Experience for Teachers webpage.

CSNE members Emo Todorov and Vikash Kumar are part of a University of Washington team of computer scientists and engineers who have built a robotic hand that can not only perform dexterous manipulation but also learn from its own experience. Read the full article in UW Today.

The CSNE is proud to welcome White Matter LLC as our latest Industry Affiliate. Located in Seattle, Washington, White Matter LLC manufactures sophisticated data acquisition devices for neuroscience and brain research. Their flagship product, the nanoZ, is used in hundreds of laboratories worldwide to rapidly test and condition multi-channel electrode arrays. In 2015, White Matter LLC released the eCube, providing researchers with the ability to acquire, process and analyze up to 6,400 channels of neural data with the world’s smallest and lightest digital headstages. These technologies will allow the CSNE researchers to perform truly large-scale electrophysiology in test subjects using ECoG or implantable electrode arrays. The CSNE is excited to have White Matter LLC as an industry partner and we are looking forward to developing this research partnership.

On Monday, April 11 over 60 people, including the CSNE Industry Affiliates, researchers and graduate students gathered to review progress of some of the latest work the Center has been involved with in the past year, as well as talk about technological advances in both industry product development and academic research. Activities included a research overview, a student poster session, and discussions about technology transfer. Industry Affiliates like Conor Russomanno, CEO of OpenBCI (pictured demonstrating an open-source data acquisition board and headset at Industry Day) are collaborating with the CSNE on exciting projects, such as equipping and supporting research in brain-computer interfaces. Read more about the CSNE's partnership with its Industry Affiliates at our Current Member page.

Getting up from a chair once posed a challenge for Steven Gilbert, affiliate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW. Now, thanks to the work of CSNE member, Dr. Andrew Ko, he walks more than five miles a day after receiving brain stimuli.

Students from the University of Washington, San Diego State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Spelman College assembled at the CSNE on Friday, November 6, 2015, for the 2015 CSNE Hackathon. Five teams of three students were tasked to develop a novel technology to addressing sensorimotor neural engineering problems. The catch? Teams had only 36 hours to complete their projects.

On Monday, November 9, teams made their final presentations to a group of faculty and industry judges. The five teams were: "Rocket Brain" | "Face the Music" | "ReVision" | EmoVibe | "Sunshine Arm." After a long deliberation, the judges selected the "Face the Music" team as the winner.

MIT’s Polina Anikeeva was among those named to the prestigious list this week. She’s described as a “creative scientist” who sees “new ways to record and stimulate brain activity.” Dr. Anikeeva is a co-leader of brain-controlled spinal reanimation research at the CSNE.

New research is now leading to changes at the University of Washington CoMotion MakerSpace. UW’s Kat Steele, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, has had help from students with disabilities to set out some new guidelines to cater to those with disabilities. Steele is an investigator with AccessEngineering, which is funded by NSF and is being led by the DO-IT program. DO-IT partners with the CSNE.

A look at Seattle-area research in neuroscience and all things related to the brain. Dr. Eric Chudler talks about engaging young minds through his Neuroscience for Kids website. Professor Chudler is the executive director of the CSNE.

Scientists say they can now download signals from your brain and translate them back into a picture that you saw. UW's Andrea Stocco, professor of psychology, is quoted, and Rajesh Rao, professor of computer science and engineering, is referenced.

MIT's Polina Anikeeva is working to turn fiction into fact, not to help with virtual reality technology, but to help amputees restore full functionality to prosthetic limbs - not just to control the muscles, but to be able to feel and touch again.

"Any type of portrayal of the brain in cartoons can get kids interested in how the brain works and what makes it tick," said CSNE Executive Director Eric Chudler. He weighed in on the latest Pixar movie, which provides a kid-friendly introduction to neuroscience.

Essential tremor is a neurological disorder that causes rhythmic shaking, and currently, deep brain stimulation is a FDA-approved method for treating people with essential tremor. UW researchers are working with Medtronic's Activa PC+S Deep Brain Stimulation system for an alternate treatment. CSNE researchers Howard Chizeck, Jeffrey Herron and Andrew Ko are interviewed.

With a title punning on the Art Nouveau movement, the exhibit presented neuroscience as art and invites viewers to explore the connections between beauty and neuroscience. The theme of neuroscience in nature can be seen in “Sidewalk Neurons” by Eric Chudler, PhD, in which he collaged images of sidewalk cracks to show viewers that neuroscience can be found everywhere, even in unexpected places.

As Russ Tedrake flings up the garage door to the dusty MIT lab, light whooshes in, revealing a 360-pound humanoid robot known as Atlas hanging from a rope. As one of the Darpa Robotics Challenge’s 25 robot finalists, Atlas will be representing Tedrake’s team at the 2015 challenge in two weeks. Tedrake is a co-leader of the Control and Adaptation Thrust.

Startups created by UW professors Howard Chizeck and Joshua Smith are featured in this article, which looks at scientists and engineers creating “smart” concrete, a system that allows robots to function in zero visibility underwater (Chizeck’s BluHaptics) and wireless backscatter technology (Smith).

A cochlear implant is designed to do one thing really well — allow users to understand speech. It should be possible to make cochlear implants more music-friendly, says Les Atlas, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington.

Exploring uncharted territory, neuroscientists are making strides with human subjects who can "talk" directly by using their minds. Professor Rajesh Rao and Research Assistant Professor Andrea Stocco of the University of Washington are featured in the story

At one MIT lab, materials scientist Polina Anikeeva has hit on a way to manufacture what amounts to a brain-science Swiss Army knife. The neural probes she builds carry light while collecting and transmitting electricity, and they also have tiny channels through which to pump drugs.

Researchers from the University of Washington departments of Electrical Engineering, Neurological Surgery and Philosophy have teamed up with medical device manufacturer Medtronic to use the Activa® PC+S Deep Brain Stimulation system with people who have essential tremor.

Community members had the chance to engage their minds while learning more about how the organ works during a Brain Symposium at Mill Creek Middle School on March 19. Shannon Jephson-Hernandez, science teacher and CSNE RET alum, was one of the driving forces behind the symposium's creation.

The project will expand the College of Engineering by providing teaching, research and collaboration space that will allow SDSU to support interdisciplinary research. SDSU collaborates with the University of Washington and MIT in the National Science Foundation's Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.

Many people have difficulty quickly identifying left and right. It is a complex process which involves several higher brain functions. A test to determine left-right discrimination, created by Dr. Eric Chudler, is included in this article.

The inspiration to use magnets to control brain activity in mice first struck MIT materials scientist Polina Anikeeva while working in the lab of neuroscientist-engineer Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Engineers at MIT, led by Polina Anikeeva, have developed a method to stimulate brain tissue using external magnetic fields and injected magnetic nanoparticles that resemble small bits of rust. This technique allows for direct stimulation of neurons, which could someday be an effective treatment for a variety of neurological diseases, and even further in the future, for severe, treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders like depression, without the need for highly invasive brain implants or external connections.

Plans to make transcranial direction current stimulation (tDCS) machines are available online and components can be bought at hobbyist stores. But that does not mean that using them is without risk, says Peter Reiner, co-founder of the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia.

About 650 elementary students attended a Brain Awareness Week open house Tuesday at the University of Washington. The event helped students learn about the brain through hands-on stations and a lecture by Eric Chudler, Ph.D., a research associate professor in the UW Department of Bioengineering and executive director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.

Matthew D’Asaro, a doctoral student in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, dismantled his first electronic gadget as a toddler. He and his roommate have turned their dorm room into an engineering workshop.

vHAB won the Tech Sandbox competition last year at the UW’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering. A lot has happened since then, including a $40,000 commercialization grant for vHAB from the UW’s CoMotion program (formerly the Center for Commercialization).

It has been the holy grail of science fiction - an interface that allows us to plug our brain into a computer. Now, researchers at MIT have revealed new fibers less than a width of a hair that could make it a reality.

Conventional neural probes are designed to record a single type of signaling, limiting the information that can be derived from the brain at any point in time. Now researchers at MIT may have found a way to change that.

vHAB is designed and engineered while keeping in mind the needs of neurologically injured people. This virtual rehabilitation system helps to stroke patients through rehabilitation in a tailored manner.

A line trailed down the Ave as students and community members waited to enter the Varsity Theatre for a screening of “Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement” Thursday night. The film, presented by the UW’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, is about technologies with the potential to make us “better than human,” such as prosthetic feet tailored for mountain climbing

Students from several summer research programs, including participants from the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, discussed their work with visitors in Mary Gates Hall. Students from the UW, MIT, SDSU and other universities took part in CSNE summer programs.

"Brain Trust," a play written by Seattle playwright Rachel Atkins in collaboration with UW Professor Eberhard Fetz explores the question of what it means to change a person’s brain through a neural implant, using something called deep brain stimulation.

Researchers at the UW recently analyzed the functionality of non-invasive BCIs and raised questions about BCI security. While many neural engineering applications of BCIs are still under development, the privacy and safety of consumer brain-signal data may be at risk without further security measures.

The 10-percent brain myth started with a misquoting of Albert Einstein or misinterpretations of the work of brain researchers and psychologists, according to a website from University of Washington neuroscientist Eric Chudler.

Professor Sara Goering investigates ethical issues that are likely to develop from the use of neural technologies. Her team is currently comparing existing interventions for human bodies and brains to new technologies being developed.

The University of Washington is receiving a $31.2 million gift from Washington Research Foundation to boost entrepreneurship and support research that tackles some of society’s most crucial challenges.

$7.19 million of the gift will be used to establish an Institute for Neuroengineering, which will foster collaborative research across many disciplines to address current challenges in neural disorders and functions, and provide new technologies for people affected by neural disorders. The funding will also support nine postdoctoral researchers, nine graduate students, nine undergraduate students and nine high school student interns. In addition, it will support building renovations in the Department of Biology to house new research. Research will take place jointly with the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering at the UW.

University of Washington students competed in April to create projects that demonstrate the core principles of neural engineering. This course, the Tech Sandbox Competition, will be replicated at MIT, San Diego State University and Morehouse College.

Graduate student Tyler Libey demonstrates vHAB, a product that he developed with a team of student researchers. Vhab is designed to help stroke victims recover and improve control over their movements through virtual reality games.

Team vHAB — including two graduate students in bioengineering, an undergraduate in bioengineering, and an undergraduate in neurobiology and behavior — created six games for stroke therapy patients. vHAB uses muscle activity sensors to measure and speed up patient motor recovery, and delivers the data into electronic medical records so doctors can measure stages of both clinical and at-home recovery.

The TechSandbox competition, coordinated by the University of Washington’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering in Seattle, was so successful in its inaugural year that the competition now takes place within the framework of a two-credit-hour course offered through the department of bioengineering.

Artificial intelligence shows signs of becoming the next big trend for tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. The University of Washington's online course "Computational Neuroscience," taught by Professors Rajesh Rao and Adrienne Fairhall, is mentioned in this article from The Washington Post.

The Washington Research Foundation, a private nonprofit group that funds research and initiatives to commercialize innovations in the state, is making a large, long-term grant to University of Washington efforts in data science, clean energy, protein design, and neuroengineering. UW Professors Tom Daniel and Adrienne Fairhall will serve as co-directors of the Institute of Neuroengineering.

Four University of Washington students who developed a virtual reality game that provides real-time feedback for patients undergoing stroke therapy came away victorious at a neural engineering competition March 13.

MIT’s graduate program in engineering has been ranked No. 1 in the country in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings — a spot the Institute has held since 1990, when the magazine first ranked graduate programs in engineering. UW ranked #26. MIT also ranked #1 in Computer Engineering; UW ranked #15 on that list.

Each March, scientists around the world host open houses to get people thinking about the brain. At the University of Washington, that means the mother of all science fairs in a room decked out with human brains, spinal cords, finch chirping and flying fruit flies.

It would be impossible to measure the cost of noisy distractions, but companies with open offices surely pay it. Adrian K.C. Lee, assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences at the University of Washington, is quoted.

While the 1987 version of “RoboCop” spoke to the blurring line between man and machine and the moral responsibilities of science, the 2014 version more readily addresses those meaty cyberpunk themes, thanks in part to the science and technology being conducted today. Research by University of Washington scientists Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco is discussed.

A look at some of the best research institutions in the U.S., ranked by level of funding from the National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. The University of Washington is number three.

The giant Consumer Electronics Show is known for glitzy, multi-story booths, showing off the next big products from some of the world’s largest technology companies. But GeekWire’s adventures included a visit to a much more modest booth — staffed by researchers from the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering whose work could have much more profound implications for humanity, albeit much further in the future than the next holiday season.

The start of the movie awards season is only weeks away! Science Writer Christian Jarrett looks at cinema and the brain. The article mentions UW Biorobotics Lab’s involvement in the movie, “Ender’s Game.”

From minimally invasive catheterization delivery to wireless power charging to overall miniaturization, the cardiovascular device field has seen plenty of advances in recent years.

Karen May-Newman, PhD, has been in the thick of it as the director of the bioengineering program at San Diego State University, where she designs and runs transparent heart simulators that game out how left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are changing the flow of blood through the heart and its valves.